Hms URBAN DESIGN - 4

MORPHOLOGICAL DIMENSION
Urban design’s Morphological dimension deals

with the configuration of urban form and space,
and the spatial patterns of infrastructure that
support it.
There are essentially two types of urban space
system – one is where buildings define space;
the other where buildings are objects-in-space.
Morphological dimension can be discussed in four

parts:
1. Urban morphology
2. Morphological transformation
3. Third & fourth parts deals with aspects of
contemporary reaction
URBAN DESIGN
URBAN MORPHOLOGY:
•Urban morphology – the study of change in the physical form and shape of
settlements over time – focuses on patterns and processes of growth and change.
•Differences in street and block patterns, plot patterns, the arrangement of buildings within
plots and the shapes of buildings create very different environments – the different
patterns are commonly referred to as ‘urban tissue’ (Caniggia & Maffel 1979, 1984).
URBAN DESIGN
MORPHOLOGICAL ELEMENTS:
Four main morphological elements by cozen to see how morphological structures are
composed of interrelated layers:
•Land uses – changes to land uses include both new uses coming in and existing uses moving
to other areas.
•Building structures – there has often been a recognizable cycle of building development on
each plot.
•Plot pattern – cadastral units (urban blocks) are typically subdivided or ‘platted’ into plots or
lots. These may be ‘back-to-back’ plots, each having a frontage onto a main street or
circulation route and a shared or common plot boundary at the rear.
•Cadastral (street) pattern – the cadastral pattern is the layout of urban blocks and public
space/movement channels between those blocks. The spaces between the blocks can be
considered to be the public space network.
URBAN DESIGN
REGULAR AND DEFORMED GRIDS:
REGULAR OR ‘IDEAL GRIDS’:
• characterized by geometric regularity.

• they are typically planned and have some degree of geometric discipline.
• Due to the ease of laying out streets, the most basic planned layouts have
generally been rectilinear and many settlements with regular or semi-regular NEW YORK: “Midtown Manhattan
grids exist. south of Central Park”
‘DEFORMED’ GRIDS:
characterized by apparent irregularity.

The cores of pre-industrial cities tend to have ‘deformed’ grids.
generally based on pedestrian movement and strongly influenced by topography,
they were integral parts of the immediate area, rather than through-routes, and
evolved and developed through use.
COPENHAGEN: “City features a
car-free zone called the Stroget”
THE PUBLIC SPACE NETWORK:
When the principal modes of transport were by foot or horse, the realms of movement and social space had
considerable overlap. With the development of new modes of land-based travel, the realms became more
separated and increasingly compartmentalised into vehicular movement space and pedestrian movement/social
space.
URBAN DESIGN
BUILDINGS DEFINING SPACE AND BUILDINGS IN SPACE:
In traditional urban space, the urban fabric is relatively dense, and

buildings are normally built adjacent to one another and flush with the
street. Building facades thus provide the ‘walls’ of open space and also
contributes to larger systems of ‘street’ and ‘urban block’.
THE ROAD HIERARCHY:

•Accommodating different forms of travel has been a historical
evolution.
•Sidewalks/pavements were for pedestrians, while the centre of the
street was for vehicles.
The Arteries:
•A quasi-road hierarchical pattern was achieved by designating certain
streets as major roads with selective widening, waiting restrictions,
turning prohibitions, one-way routings and access limited to allow
traffic to move more freely and quickly.
The Cells:
•By closing off intersections and side streets and consolidating blocks,
larger superblocks were created, with the new perimeters of the
enlarged street/superblocks becoming large-scale gyratory systems.
URBAN DESIGN
MORPHOLOGICAL TRANSFORMATION:
• This part discusses the transformation in the public space network’s morphological
structure in the twentieth century from buildings as constituent elements of urban
blocks defining streets and squares towards buildings as separate freestanding object-
buildings standing in amorphous ‘space’.
Different types of Urban Forms
URBAN DESIGN
Pod Developments:
• A transformation in the morphological structure of urban

areas from outward-facing urban blocks to inward-
focused complexes of buildings served by an exclusive road
connection – often referred to as ‘pods’.
• In pod development, each use – shopping mall, fast-food
outlet, strip mall, office park, apartment complex,
medical centre, hotel and convention facility, etc. – is
conceived as a separate element, surrounded by its
associated parking and usually with its own individual and Map of Delhi
exclusive access onto a collector or main distributor road.
Residential Developments:
Residential cul-de-sacs are a particular kind of pod.
In its typical suburban manifestation, it is a relatively short,
dead-end street with a turning hammerhead or circle, serving
perhaps 20 or 30 dwellings.
URBAN DESIGN
CONNECTED STREET PATTERNS:
On the spectrum of connectivity, Marshall identified four broad
street network pattern types:
Tributary – deep branching with systematic use of cul-de-sac
and/or layered loop roads, and often associated with
hierarchically based suburban expansions of the second half of
the twentieth century.
Semi-tributary – with some degree of layering and use of cul-de-

sacs, but with less division between minor and major access roads
and use of T-junctions, found in older suburban neighborhoods.
Semi-gridded – referring to typically distorted grid systems with a

variety of T and X junctions, often found in inner areas or
traditional settlements.
Gridded – featuring a high proportion of X-junctions and

reflecting the type of planned, regular layouts of grid-iron urban
extensions or new cities.
URBAN DESIGN
URBAN BLOCKS:
•Reaction to object-buildings and pod developments saw a new interest in the conscious design of
the space between buildings and in the creation of well-defined, positive space. This has led to
explicit attempts to compose and organize the parts so that the whole – the place – is greater than the
sum of the parts (individual buildings and developments).
TYPO-MORPHOLOGICAL APPROACHES:
•Colin Rowe described the Modernist city’s ‘spatial predicament’ as one of ‘objects’ and ‘texture’:
objects are sculptural buildings standing freely in space, while the texture is the background,
continuous matrix of built form defining space.
URBAN BLOCK SIZES:

•Conceived as a public space network, urban block structures open up possibilities and – in
conjunction with basic typologies/codes/rules about physical parameters – can provide coherence
and ‘good’ urban form without necessarily being overly deterministic about architectural form or
content.
•The size and shape of urban blocks are also important as it can control the microclimate and issues
of wind and sun penetration and thus a balance must be struck within the design process between
environmental performance and urban form.
•Rather than a single, repeated block size, a range of block sizes (including small blocks) may
encourage and facilitate greater diversity of building types and land uses.
URBAN DESIGN
Small Blocks:
•Small blocks are nevertheless often advocated for a variety
of reasons including vitality, permeability, visual interest and
legibility.
Large Blocks:
•Larger blocks are likely to be perimeter blocks where the
ribbon of buildings around the edge of the block provides the
public front to the development, with private or semi-private
space in the block’s interior.
Comparing Block Sizes:

•Compared to small block patterns, larger block structures
may be more efficient in terms of the distribution of built
form and open space because there is less circulation space.
•Two interrelated aspects of the evolution of the block and
street patterns are of particular interest – their persistence and
the size of the circulation meshes.
URBAN DESIGN
STREETS AS PLACES:
•Instead of treating streets only as ‘channel for efficient
movement’ they should be considered as both social space and
as connecting spaces; a multi-purpose public space network,
where social space and movement space are separated if
absolutely necessary, but otherwise have considerable overlap.
Designing for Cars or People:

•The combination of vehicular movement space and social space
in the same physical space tends to cause a variety of problems:
•major urban roads provide obstructions to pedestrian
movement, creating problems of severance and reducing
connectivity.
•heavy traffic frustrates the social use of streets.
From Arterial Roads to Streets and Boulevards:

•Cities around the world have sought to change the character of
urban roads – and to re-discover them as ‘streets’, ‘avenues’ and
‘boulevards’, and to re-conceive them as connectors rather than
dividers.
URBAN DESIGN
SHARED SPACES:
•At the more local level, careful design is required to reconcile and integrate the needs and
demands of different forms of movement: protecting social space from the impacts of cars and
creating areas that, while accessible by cars, are pedestrian-dominant.
•Shared space typically involves replacing conventional road priority management systems and
devices (kerbs, lines, signs, signals, etc.) and the segregation of vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists and
other road users, with an integrated, people-oriented understanding of public space, such that
walking, cycling, and driving cars become integrated activities.
CONCLUSION:
Urban design’s morphological dimension focuses on urban form and urban layout, highlighting
contemporary preferences for urban block and interconnected street patterns. It has also focused
on the public space network and the physical public realm – the physical setting or stage for
public life.
URBAN DESIGN
THANK YOU
URBAN DESIGN

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MORPHOLOGICAL DIMENSION

Urban design’s Morphological dimension deals

Morphological dimension can be discussed in four

• characterized by geometric regularity.

characterized by apparent irregularity.

In traditional urban space, the urban fabric is relatively dense, and

THE ROAD HIERARCHY:

Different types of Urban Forms

• A transformation in the morphological structure of urban

exclusive access onto a collector or main distributor road.

Semi-tributary – with some degree of layering and use of cul-de-

Semi-gridded – referring to typically distorted grid systems with a

Gridded – featuring a high proportion of X-junctions and

URBAN BLOCK SIZES:

Comparing Block Sizes:

Designing for Cars or People:

From Arterial Roads to Streets and Boulevards:

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